Many of you may not have been aware of the changing relationship between the US since o'biden took office. On 11.04.21 the US blacklisted Israel’s NSO Group and Candiru spyware firms. The Commerce Department says Israeli companies suspected of a link to ‘activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States, ’adding them to the list of foreign companies that engage in malicious cyber activities. NSO Group (Pegasus software/spyware) and the lesser-known Candiru (malware software) considered its competitor in the cyber-surveillance market, were accused of providing spyware software to authoritarian governments that used the tool maliciously.

The list is made of entities “reasonably believed to be involved, have been involved, or pose a significant risk of being or becoming involved, in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.”

These companies were supposedly placed on the list based on evidence (good luck trying to FOIA this info) that these entities developed and supplied spyware to foreign governments that used these tools to maliciously target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics, and embassy workers,” according to a Commerce Department statement (see 11.04.21 Final Rule below).

The practical, legal implications are relatively straightforward: NSO Group and the other three entities included in the designation effectively can no longer do business with any U.S. firm, which could prove challenging since products and services from Amazon, Microsoft, Dell and other U.S. companies have been essential to NSO in disseminating its spyware.

This decision supposedly came about several months after a group of Democratic lawmakers,
Representatives Tom Malinowski (NJ-07), Katie Porter (CA-45), Joaquin Castro (TX-20), and Anna G. Eshoo (CA-18), called on Biden to take a series of punitive measures against NSO Group in light of reports in June 2021 that the firm NSO had leased military-grade spyware Pegasus to repressive governments knowing that it would most likely be used to maliciously target journalists, activists, academics, embassy workers, business people, peaceful critics, and persecuted groups. Among the steps proposed was adding the Israeli firm to the Entity List. You can bet AOC and the squad were involved at some level and applauded this action.

The Washington Post chimes in saying that what’s really needed are hard and fast rules to check the proliferation of a technology ostensibly designed to catch criminals but all too commonly exploited to quash opposition. These rules are essential not only here but in all nations with a stated commitment to democracy. Ideally, governments would pledge not to procure spyware from any company or country that doesn’t do due diligence on its clients. They would also create export-control regimes mandating independent, public, human rights assessments for the development and sale of these tools, including investigations into the rule of law in the end user’s country. NSO Group has adopted a human rights policy, but the enforcement mechanism has been little more than “trust us.”

... [A] global challenge needs a global response... [T]he United States must lead the way... ensuring that companies no longer can get away with selling a dangerous product merely by refusing to acknowledge that the danger exists.

Of course the UNHCR and the Human Resource Center applaud the blacklisting as they say Pegasus is used for “transnational repression” carried out by some foreign governments outside of their sovereign borders to silence dissent, that to was used by UAE to target Khashoggi and accuses Hungary of using it maliciously to target journalists, activists and political dissidents. UN experts have called for an international moratorium on the sale of surveillance technology until regulations are implemented to protect human rights following the Pegasus scandal. The United Nations Human Rights Council released its year-end report, and surprise surprise, Israel makes a disproportionate appearance in the document. Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, responded harshly.

NSO has long said it only sells its products to government law enforcement and intelligence clients, helping them to monitor security threats, and is not directly involved in surveillance operations.

A Reuters inquiry, for what its worth, said that Apple Inc iPhones of at least nine US State Department employees were hacked by an unknown assailant using sophisticated spyware developed by the Israel-based NSO Group, according to four people familiar with the matter.

The hacks, which took place in the last several months, hit US officials either based in Uganda or focused on matters concerning the East African country, two of the sources said.

Reuters could not determine who launched the latest cyberattacks.

NSO Group said in a statement that it did not have any indication their tools were used but canceled the relevant accounts and would investigate based on the Reuters inquiry.

What are the practical implications for US citizens since these technologies support US national security interests and policies by preventing terrorism and crime? Who's going to protect the US from terrorism and global cybet-security crime given the FBI's and our intelligence agency's historical inability to do so?

As a side note, I find it interesting that o'biden says nothing about the questionable if not outright illegal malicious targeting of an independent journalist group with the FBI's seizure of James O'Keefe and other Project Veritas journalist's legally obtained source materials/ information and possibly shared some of the information seized with NYT, a state propaganda outlet. A court order had to be obtained to stop the extractions from O'Keefe's cell and request the appointment of a 'special master due to the DOJ's leftist ideological biases. Also who tipped off the NYT about the raid? It appears that President #46 is using his Department of Justice, specifically the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, to investigate the alleged theft of #46's daughter's diary.*

Bottomline, I believe o'biden and his corrupt administration, the US intelligence agencies, the DOJ, dems/rinos in Congress, dem governors etc. represent a clear and present threat to the Republic and her citizens as evidenced by their move toward global governance, their use of social media to track and censor their opposition, their use of identity politics to divide the country, attempts to mandates cv19 vaxx and leading the war on the unvaxxed, the dismantling of the science community in favor of political scientism, trillions in government spending, the disgrace of government leadership literally kneeling before the 2020 race rioters followed by limited to no prosecution for the lootind, assaults and/or murders of citizens that caused billions of dollars in damage, the disgrace of the detention J6 participants as political prisoners with questionable due process, their attack on an a conservative independent journalist (it won't be the last). their blacklisting of an Israeli (our ally) security software company that provide surveillance information that helps fight terrorism in the US and globally, the disregard for the 'rule of law' and the Constitution, the branding and targeting if law abiding citizens as 'domestic terrorists', the bungled Afghanistan pull out resulting in the loss of 13 American service men, the failure to stop illegal immigration at our southern border and hampering the ability of the Border Patrol to do their jobs, their failure to protect Americans from the violence perpetrated by illegal immigrants and Afghani immigrants that eye not screened, etc. I'll stop there because the list is long and sorted. All of this and we're less than a year into this rodeo...

▪︎The 'final rule' was implemented 11.04.2021 - This rule implements the decision of the ERC to add four entities to the Entity List. The four entities are added based on § 744.11 (License requirements that apply to entities acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States) of the EAR. The four entities are located in Israel, Russia, and Singapore.

The ERC determined that NSO Group and Candiru be added to the Entity List based on § 744.11 of the EAR: Entities for which there is reasonable cause to believe, based on specific and articulated facts, that the entity has been involved, is involved, or poses a significant risk of being or becoming involved in activities that are contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States and those acting on behalf of such entities. Specifically, investigative information has shown that the Israeli companies NSO Group and Candiru developed and supplied spyware to foreign governments that used this tool to maliciously target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics, and embassy workers.

[federalregister.gov]

[commerce.gov]

[malinowski.house.gov]

[business-humanrights.org]

[ussanews.com]

[timesofisrael.com]

[foxnews.com]